Water:Works-An Immersive Performance (September, 2018)​On the land surrounding the historic water treatment facility built in Fort Collins in 1913, Water: Works is a multidisciplinary exploration of the ways water works in our lives and what it does, through actions performed, participated in, and poeticized.This piece is a reflection on water in history, both local and ancient. This piece is about survival, both freedom from calamity and celebration of life. This piece is about nature, human and wild.Each action will be conceived to be unique to water and its connection to human life, with a specific focus on life in Northern Colorado over the last 200 years.By reflecting on water, we aim to raise awareness of its importance, specifically in Colorado, through the audience’s collective experience.As a company of multi-disciplinary artists we see the value in creating a visceral, real, and innovative piece of art connected and constrained by one unifying idea. Together we are better through collaboration.As an immersive piece the audience will experience the work with all five senses. The traditional barrier between performer and audience will be blurred. Like more of a wordless collection of poetry than a play, this musical, visual, and visceral performance piece will be a first of its kind in Fort Collins.This piece is a reflection on what water does for us all, a celebration of how Water: Works.​Was the event a success? YES! We set out to create a unqiue, site-specific, immersive ode to water in Northern Colorado and we did just that. Not only did we bring together a new theatre company, an established dance company, and a group of singers assembled just for this production, we brought together visual artists, filmmakers, and technicians from the community as well. We proved that audineces are willing to show up for unconventional work without a proscenium or theatre seats. The audience enthusiastically moved through the space, participated in our stories and movements, and gamely were energized and present in the performance. Judy and I were thrilled with the reception, how moved and inspired the audience was by the work, and how we reached a different demographic than we normally do. Artistically it was a success because all the actors contributed to the devising of the character's story arcs. All the choreography was new and created specifically for the outdoor space. The singers, lead by Blair Carpenter, sang traditional songs with new arrangements custom made for the performance. We all had to stretch ourselves as performers to maintain connections with each other and communication with the audience. ​We contributed to the economy and cultural community with Water:Works. Financially it exceeded expectations and we were able to pay the artists more. We were also able to pay technicians, stagehands, and crew who made the whole thing possible. We got a great deal from the Waterworks team and were able to contribute to the preservation of a local historical landmark through our new production. Not only did we pecuniarily contribute to a local historical site, we brought a large crowd to the site who had hitherto never set foot on the property, thus raising awareness. Hopefully these folks will want to contribute to the mutli-million dollar refurbishment the 1883 Waterworks is in dire need of. Demographically it extended beyond typical theatre audience and brought in individuals with ties to the Poudre Landmarks Foundation, the CSU Environmental and Sociology departments, local naturalists, river enthusiasts, and more. A few immersive theatre makers from Boulder and Denver attended to support new, innovative performing arts. Collaboratively we proved that one can do self-produced work of this nature with enough initiative and support from the artistic community. Everyone pitched in: OpenStage lent props, Shari Due (local filmmaker) shot footage, starving artists contributed to the Kickstarter. It truly was a collaboration, and that is a cultural contribution in and of itself.

Were there any unexpected outcomes or impacts?

-Attendence exheeded expectation by nearly 25%-Pay-why-you-can audience members mostly paid near the ticket price ($25.00) which allowed us higher profits than anticipated-We recieved a lot of donations : Apples from ELA family orchard, bread from Great Harvest, and a few other local businesses-A crew of documentary filmmakers shot the production to use in the forthcoming "Watering the West: The Story of the Cache la Poudre River" by Shari Due and Mona Maser-Several new collaborative duos and trios were formed-We forged connections with the local history groups in an unexpected way-A young theatre director (Natalie Scarlett) was able to learn from a more experienced choreographer and producer (Judy Bejarano)-Many people were reeling from the experience and talked to me about days afterwards, when they'd collected their thoughts-Without spending any money on marketing, printing, boosted posts, or online ads we were able to sell out or oversell all three productions (one dress, two performances) -With steam from this project, and some profits, we will start work on the next immersive, site-specific pieces in the community-We were able to pay artists and creators more than quoted for their hard work

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